In a bid to dispel grocery behaviour myths, TorchMedia partnered with ShopAbility to uncover the truths behind them as part of project Hogwash.

Over 5,000 people were asked to qualify the myths put forward. These people had to be households whom shop at least once a month. Within this sample there were 11,682 shopping trips over one week.

A common untruth, which has been used to describe the shopper is, “The main grocery buyer is female 25-54 with kids living at home.” This is false, it is a major group who you see meander the grocery aisle, but only holds a 36 per cent share.

Another well-versed myth was “People only go grocery shopping once a week.” Again, this is false, in actual fact, on average 39 per cent of shoppers go grocery shopping once a week. 47 per cent go two to three times per week.

In addition to frequency, another common misconception was the day of the week people ventured out to stock the pantry, “Grocery Shopping is always done at the end of the week.” This was quite convincingly found to be an untrue. Only 29 per cent of people visit the supermarket on Sundays. This was a surprising finding considering many people believe the biggest shopping day is Sunday.

Kirsty Dollisson, general manager, marketing and commercial for TorchMedia, has welcomed the results which give a clearer picture of who the shopper is today in addition to busting the industry misconceptions.

“The study also served to acid test and update TorchMedia’s shopper profiles,” she said. “This will benefit FMCG manufacturers providing a relevant insight into the modern shopping habits of Australians.”

With most myths busted, there were some, which were found to be true such as “Shopping with young children will increase the average shop due to pester power.” If you’ve ever spent time waiting in line near a screaming child you wouldn’t be surprised with this finding.

Another finding from this study was the shift in behaviour when visiting the supermarket. The most prevalent trip type is no longer a large main shop. This is only 26 per cent of grocery trips, 35 per cent of trips are now a ‘regular top-up shop’.

Kirsty says the top-up shop has grown steadily over the past 10 years due to the changing face of the shopper and lifestyles.